Out and About in Tokyo

Since we had all day before our workshop officially started, several of us headed out to shop.  Japan is the home of Uniqlo, a store with high quality but inexpensive basics.  With the Yen being weak against the dollar it made everything even more reasonable.  We also wen to d47, part museum part high quality crafts store.  They have gathered the best crafts from the 47 districts in Japan and have brought them together in this store. 

Our first evening we had a group dinner at Gonpachi Nishi-Azabu which served as the inspiration for Quentin Terantino for his restaurant scene in Kill Bill.  It combined both entertainment and good food so made for a great first dinner.  We had a variety of Japanese specialties served family style for the group while watching the chefs cook and plate the food.

The next morning we took a train to to the Miji-Jingu Shrine.  This Shinto Shrine (the official religion of Japan) is dedicated to Emperor Meiji and Empress Shoken and is in a lovely park setting.  The light rain really made the greens in the trees pop.  We had an hour to make our way through the temple complex.

Our next stop was at a pig cafe.  That's right, we were in a room with miniature pigs that would pile into your lap and make little snorting noises.  They seemed to like to be near the other pigs and would stack on top of  each other, sometimes 3 high.  They're for sale as pets with prices of around $2000.  Some of our group was more pig friendly than others.  Other pets that had their own cafes included owls, otters, puppies, and hedgehogs. Bristly to the touch, it was fun spending a little time with the pigs.

We made our way through another shopping district on our way to lunch.  This seemed to be more of a teen heaven with some of the clothing often associated with Japanese teens.  Lunch was at Sakura-Tei where we made our own Okonomiyaki (sort of a Japanese pizza).  First we chose a from a list of dishes that was delivered to our table.  We next mixed up the vegetables and place them on a hot griddle built into our table.  Noodles were warmed then placed on our pizza.  We each had an egg that was cracked onto the hot grill and then our pizza was flipped onto it to finish cooking.  The final touch was adding Japanese barbecue sauce and mayonnaise on top with your choice of seasonings.  It was quite yummy and filling.

 

 We ran into some teenager on our way back to the train that indulge us by posing for photos.  

This evening we went to the Asakusa district for a dinner cruise.  Jock arranged a boat just for our group.  We were treated to a variety of foods during the dinner including cooking steak on our mini hibachi.  The tempura (lightly battered fried food) was brought hot throughout the meal.  We made one stop where we could go up top to take pictures of the bay, then headed back for our train ride back to the hotel.  Today gave us a nice taste of the largest city in the world.

Tomorrow: Shinkansen to Kanazawa